To maintain an ecological balance within an aquarium, it is necessary to clean the aquarium water. Cleaning is often accomplished by filtering the aquarium water through a filter housing. In the filter housing, water enters a filter chamber, flows through a filter element, and is then returned to the aquarium. Through normal filtering operation, various particulates become trapped in the filter element, requiring the user to regularly service (i.e., maintain and/or replace) the filter element.
As can be understood, the filter element is at least partly submerged within aquarium water during use and is therefore water saturated. When the filter element is serviced, the user typically extracts the filter element from the housing and holds the element over the housing or aquarium to drain. While a majority of the water may drain out of the element, typically residual water remains. The filter element is then transported to a refuse container or sink area for disposal/maintenance. During transport, the user must contend with water drips from the filter element. A common complaint is that this service procedure is messy, as it is impractical to wait until all residual water has drained from the filter element.
In general, improvement has been sought with respect to such filter devices and arrangements, generally to accommodate ease-of-use and convenience for the user.